Here’s my complete guide to assist with all pre season planning! (Visual 🧵) 👉🏻Best fixtures + rotations 👉🏻Best WC + BB windows 👉🏻Best DEFCON assets 👉🏻Best DEFCON opponents 👉🏻Most consistent assets 👉🏻Bonus point magnets #FPL

So I watched 75 preseason matches, and here's everything I noted from an FPL perspective. Arsenal: - Tzolis, despite excellent defensive support for Calafiori, showed versatility in how to attack different types of defenders, a great sense of timing for passing behind, and great numbers of attacking returns as a result. Incredible set-piece delivery. It was especially noticeable that he is now an option for receiving a short throw-ins, despite the fact that long throw-ins from Calafiori have been practiced all season. - Gabriel is dominant as a set-piece receiver. The most common routine used was where Arsenal players overload tightly at the far post, literally pressed against each other, and when the ball is played they quickly run in different directions, with Gabriel remaining to receive it. - Calafiori is absolutely elite at interpreting space. He is where he needs to be at the right time and is often used to distract the opponent, so there will be many goals where his position will be incredibly high, but where he will be left completely without the ball. - Bruno is a bonus for both Arsenal attackers and defenders. More risky directness means more attacking opportunities, but it also means more transitional moments and, accordingly, a few more DEFCONs. Aston Villa: - 3-2-5 in possession will give more variety than "give the ball to Rogers". The opposition often struggled to find a reference point for the fifth player in the first line. It would make it harder to find FPL options based on open play. - Buendia finally moved into his favourite #10 role, and it instantly translated into attacking returns. In general, his big-chance involvement was one of the best among all players in preseason. Very small sample size, but already a lot more box entries from him than usual. -Bogarde had one of the highest DEFCON numbers for midfielders, and Maatsen gets into the top 10 as well, just keep in mind Villa's signing of Ruggeri. - Players I will target against Villa are the ones who will most likely participate in quick diagonals to exploit the high line. - Ironically, after losing their set-piece coach, Villa started to concede a lot from set pieces. Absolute disorganisation and, what's worse, a lot of initial duels and clearances falling directly to the opponent. So don't be surprised if set-piece takers have a lot of pre-assists instead of assists against Aston Villa. Bournemouth: - Bournemouth participated in the highest-intensity matches. DEFCON was all over the place, but there were low numbers from the usual suspects. Instead, a lot more defensive actions came from the wing-backs. - Truffert was easily the most advanced defender out of all teams. Creating for teammates but, most importantly, creating for himself even more. Biggest amount of box arrivals, DEFCONs and shots. Full-package defender. - Disappointing corner delivery from Scott and Tavernier, but nice indirect free kicks. Expecting both to dominate big-chance involvement. - Categorically not expecting any DC potential from Antonio Silva. The guy is just too good in possession and tends to prioritise intended passes in aerial duels, even when clearing the ball would be the easier option. In Portugal, too big a portion of his defensive actions came from the danger created by his own teammates. Brentford: - Only two teams in Europe's big five leagues relied more heavily on set pieces to generate shots. They also had some really nice set-piece routines in preseason. As funny as it sounds, I wouldn't pick said set-piece takers, because most of the routines are not direct and too much variability hurts their predictive value in that sense. - Sangare is a main talking point for a good reason. I highly expect his DEFCON numbers to translate to the PL, not only because the number of defensive actions will naturally inflate, but also because he plays for one of the most direct teams in the league. Just like Elliot Anderson, he doesn't need to make a lot of defensive actions to hit the threshold as long as he progresses the ball forward. Chelsea: - Caicedo unsurprisingly finished in the top3 for DEFCONs in preseason, and with the way Alonso plays, midfielders will get more defensive actions while defenders will get less. Still, it took him 6-7 months at Leverkusen to get to this point, so I'm not expecting a quick decrease. - Palestra picked some nice positions, but he wasn't that good on the ball. I'm considering him a pretty safe option, as with Lacroix in the squad Alonso has no choice but to play with three in defence. - Joao Pedro looks central to everything, and it's important that we're seeing different types of goals rather than simply a player converting a few preseason chances. - Palmer is still the main creative hub. Preseason wasn't spectacular, but the structural changes should give more hope than the preseason output. - Biggest takeaways from an FPL perspective are transition vulnerability, occasional defensive disorganisation, large spaces behind the wide players and struggling to break down a settled block. Coventry: - The most DEFCON-friendly team, with the weakest right wing. Van Ewijk was overcommitting a lot, and not successfully. He also invert during the first phase and, despite dominant phases of the game, looked fairly conservative. Expected him to make some aggressive runs once Coventry establish possession, but that wasn't happening. - Big difference between Thomas and Amenda in how they deal with pressure, and that should be a big difference in their DEFCONs as well. Thomas steps forward to engage an attacker or follow movement into midfield, which can leave space behind him. That can be particularly dangerous because Coventry's structure can already have van Ewijk moving into unusual positions. - Yirenkyi is extremely direct after winning duels, which helps him pick up extra DEFCONs. That's Anderson/Sangare territory. - Grimes with very good set-piece delivery. Small chance he might be on pens as well. - Tchaouna is direct but wasteful, most likely to be the most isolated player on counters. Palace: - The biggest problem is what happens immediately after Palace lose the ball. The rest-defence behind the wing-backs isn't consistently ready for the moment Palace lose possession. - Very aggressive defensive structure + naturally aggressive CBs is a DEFCON heaven. Disconnected two-man midfield inflates those numbers as well, but as you can imagine, that's not very good for clean sheets. High defensive line is also vulnerable when the press doesn't arrive, with too much grass behind the defenders, and they don't have Lacroix anymore. Good luck to No Haaland teams, what can I say. Everton: - Unusually composed in the first preseason matches, but rolled back to the good old Everton in the last games. A lot of DEFCONs, but proportionally spread among all the players. Röhl and Mykolenko ended up being the biggest hitters. - Röhl has been used both out of position and in a reverse out-of-position role throughout preseason, and even in a more advanced role he still produced strong DEFCON numbers. Not looking like he's going to get regular minutes, but that's definitely the one to monitor because he could be this season's Mats Wieffer. - Midfield is stacked, genuinely good games from pretty much everyone. KDH with more box arrivals than usual. - Keane is the primary target on set pieces. - Barry improved, much better both in large spaces and tight areas. From an FPL perspective, I like that he shoots more, even from unbalanced body positions. -Mykolenko with some horrendous highlights, but he played an important role in the last Everton goal. Was struggling in the George-KDH triangle, but generally showed why Everton is a top-five team by limiting the threat from RWs. - Armstrong, although wasteful at times, impressed a lot, and his inswingers were great. - Ndiaye is much more comfortable on the left, but with the way George plays, I'm not sure he'll get as many minutes on the left as I want him to. Fulham: - Iwobi looks like one of the three reasons why they might not get relegated. Biggest number of penetrating passes into the box, even when playing in a double pivot, on set pieces and potentially on penalties as well. Possibly the best corners I've seen this preseason, each time finding his target. - The other two reasons are Palacios and Garcia. Sadly, I'm not as confident in Garcia as an FPL option. Both him and Palacios are doing way too much on and off the ball, very good for Fulham but very bad for an attacker that you want to pick. - Individual quality in defence is horrendous. Bassey had the biggest amount of dangerous ball losses, basically helping the opponent create chances. Defenders stretch as wide as possible to create more build-up options, but when possession is lost, it's a tragedy. Ipswich: -One of the most stubborn and straightforward teams, and it helps to identify their best assets. In possession, the 3-4-2-1 transforms into a front five: Davies – Maeda – Emersonn – Walle Egeli – Fatawu. - Leif Davis is the key figure on the left flank. In a back three, he has the license to push up almost into the attacking line. His freedom to attack creates a downside to the team's setup: a wide-open corridor behind him whenever possession is lost. That's why I'm expecting Florentino's DEFCON potential to be even higher this season. - Fatawu's role depends on the opponent. Against Rayo, he played as a wing-back. From that position, he has more ground to cover to reach the goal after winning the ball, so against an evenly matched team, it makes more sense to play him higher up the pitch. In a match where Ipswich spend long periods defending, O'Neil might drop him into a back five or position another player behind him. If you want a player with more box arrivals, it would be Maeda. - Jacob Greaves is the left-sided centre-back responsible for covering the space vacated by the high-pushing Davies. He's absolutely essential, and I expect him to get the most minutes out of all the defenders. O'Shea can play on the right or in the centre of a back three and organise the defensive line. Diop is more accustomed to defending large spaces and adds height for aerial duels. Leeds: - I'm not sure about the repetitiveness of bicycle kicks, but I'm pretty sure about the repetitiveness of defensive actions from Tarik Muharemovic, the best DC hitter during preseason. - Joe Rodon has repeatedly been advancing down the right from centre-back. It's not simply that he's carrying the ball forward occasionally. There is a clear tactical pattern where, when Leeds have possession, Rodon can become the right-sided progressive player, moving much higher than you'd expect from a conventional centre-back. - Stach provides the physical coverage that allows the defenders to move more, and I'm not a fan of it from an FPL perspective. Also, it was a really nice preseason from the whole midfield, so I wouldn't even try projecting their minutes. - Ampadu is probably the safest, and he ended up being the highest DEFCON contributor among midfielders. - Longstaff has been surprisingly interesting, with an unusually good amount of box arrivals and nice set-piece involvement. -Each of the defenders is a nice option for different reasons, so I'd probably pick them based on the positional vulnerability index short term. - Wilson is comfortable receiving between the lines and generally drops into midfield a lot to help with the build-up. Still manages to find some nice shooting positions, just not as attacking as last season. - Early vertical balls are inflating DCL's potential. Them becoming way too direct can become their main weakness, but that's also the biggest positive for DCL owners. Liverpool: - A lot of questions about DEFCON. I'm expecting numbers to stay big but not really increase because we have to understand that Liverpool already produced a very similar amount of transitional defensive touches last season, and it's not like this number will get ridiculously bigger under Iraola. Araujo is not as proactive as he's been described, but his attacking potential is definitely underrated. - When Liverpool's midfield/pressing structure isn't functioning, Isak can become quite isolated, and I don't really like it. - Iraola has increasingly used Wirtz as a genuine No. 10, rather than trying to force him into a wider role, but Mac Allister's availability could start a huge domino effect, so it's simply too hard for me to speculate about the roles of players like Szobo and Wirtz. Man United: - Andrey Santos finished preseason with some strong DEFCON numbers and showed some nice ability to find passes between the lines, but his most underrated weapon could be his role as a set-piece receiver. At Strasbourg, this was one of his biggest strengths, but it's rarely talked about. He seems to thrive in unconventional routines and has a habit of finding himself unmarked. With Bruno taking the set pieces and United relying heavily on them, Santos could be a real hidden gem at his price. - Maguire was unusually uncomfortable in possession, which is obviously good news for his DEFCON potential. He also offers something from set pieces, but De Ligt is one to keep an eye on. - Dorgu was wasteful again. The work rate is excellent, but the timing of his attacking runs still doesn't look quite right. - Mbeumo looked very comfortable operating through the middle, and I actually think this could make him even more appealing in fixtures where United are happy to give up possession and attack in transition. Nottingham Forest: - Williams is one of the main talking points. Very attacking and involved on corners. I wouldn't draw a direct comparison with Munoz, though. Rather than both wing-backs simply bombing forward, Glasner's Forest are showing a clear right-sided structural overload, with Aina and the midfielders helping to create control and attract pressure before progressing towards the left. The left side is much more aggressive, with Neco pushed very high and combining with Gibbs-White and the forwards. It creates a strong attacking triangle on that side, but also leaves significant space behind Neco when Forest lose possession. His flexibility is a bit of a problem. - You can clearly see that Glasner wants multiple players arriving in dangerous areas. Gibbs-White rotates with both Neco and the striker, consistently finding some good positions. Ndoye provides the width and vertical threat on the right, while Aina remains slightly more conservative. - Jesus' situation is closer to Garcia's at Fulham, especially in the latest matches. - I'm also expecting Milenkovic to maintain a similar DEFCON potential, with Diomande rarely hitting the threshold. Sunderland: - A lot of territorial dominance from Ballard, along with plenty of progressive carries and dribbling. It's not that he's extremely attacking, but more that Sunderland can cause problems when the opposition doesn't press them. His defensive involvement was fairly low, with most of his defensive touches coming from set pieces. He wasn't as involved in dead-ball situations as I'd hoped, with Reinildo looking like the main set-piece threat. - Problems building up from the back make Enzo Le Fee less appealing, as he often has to drop deep to help with ball progression. - I quite like Talbi and Angulo on the wings. They looked a lot better and the contrast with what Sunderland were trying to do out wide in the first matches. Spurs: - The main topic is DEFCON. As I mentioned already, Spurs are happy to circulate the ball for ages until they bait the opposition into pressing. Because of that, I wouldn't be too optimistic about Van Hecke's potential. He finished the last match with 12 DCs, but two of those actions were calculated incorrectly. Two clearances were actually directed passes, with Gray and Vicario simply failing to receive them. There were also a couple of tackles high up the pitch, while some of the clearances came from Senesi. That's what happened to Hill last season: Senesi can be good at making the first contact, but someone still needs to clear the ball afterwards. So while Senesi is playing, he will naturally increase Van Hecke's potential, but over a larger sample, I'm still convinced De Zerbi's style will be the stronger factor.

Thank you to everyone supporting my pre-season reports ❤️ Now that the calibre of matches is higher, all the data should be publicly available, so there’s no need to manually count DEFCONs for me anymore. Will make a big post before GW1 covering the most important things feom all the matches, as I'm not missing a single one.

🚨Pre-Season Stats are live for FREE on nextXI.app/pre-season - Goals, assists & minutes - DEFCONs, DEFCONs/90, shots & passing data available for some fixtures - Provisional FPL points Best way to say thanks is reposting this post and following @AlexVolloFPL & @nextXI_FPL 🫶

A friend who's a big Milan account asked me "Why did Ruben Amorim fail at Manchester United?". This was my brief essay to answer his question. Hope it's of interest to Serie A fans on what to expect and maybe a reminder to MUFC & PL fans on what actually happened in a nutshell.

This is a classic example of data becoming detached from context. Underlying numbers are useful, but only if you understand what they can and can’t explain. Amorim’s United may well have had better underlying metrics. Fine. But football isn’t played in a model. A team can generate decent xG, force turnovers and progress territory while still being dysfunctional in the ways that actually matter: player buy-in, tactical clarity, adaptability, game management, emotional control. Amorim failed at all of that and the results reflected it. That’s a big part of why he lost so much of the squad and executive support. Reducing Carrick’s improvement to “vibes” misses the point completely. This isn’t vibes. It’s simplification. Carrick has stripped the game model back, reduced cognitive load, clarified roles and built around creating moments for high-level attackers in an otherwise flawed squad. That’s why results improved. The marginal moments are going United’s way because the platform underneath them is stronger. The squad didn’t suddenly become better and variance didn’t flip overnight. But the conditions for execution have improved dramatically. Your model can’t see that because models are descriptive, not explanatory. The explanation sits outside the model. The better question isn’t whether Amorim’s numbers were better. He got himself fired. That debate is over. It’s how Carrick’s current approach evolves into the next stage of this team. That’s the conversation happening at Old Trafford. Not retrospective process analysis on a failed coach.

🚨🗣️ Patrice Evra claims that none of his ex team mates have a leg to stand on after their own failures as managers: "I hope Paul Scholes' Instagram story is fake, I hope he was hacked, To be honest, I'm not surprised at that from Scholesy. He was the quietest player I've ever played with in my entire career. Now, in the media, he drops bombshells. There's been negative analysis from Scholesy, but also from Roy Keane and Gary Neville. It annoys me because we want to be in the top four, and those comments are unnecessary, but this is what you do when you work in TV. You can't be positive, you have to be negative. Most of these guys get a managerial job and get fired straightaway. I said to Neville: 'It's easy to talk on TV. When you were at Valencia, they asked you for paella, and you gave them fish and chips.'" [@Stake]

It took Ruben Amorim 10 months & 35 games to win back to back in the Premier League for Manchester United. Michael Carrick just did it in 9 days & 2 games against City & Arsenal.

🚨🚨| Nicky Butt has been signed up to a new social media platform called Peek. Paul Scholes is also believed to be in talks with the company. Peek will offer high profile sports figures the opportunity to post their opinions in return for a share of the profits. [@ChrisWheelerDM/@NathSalt1]